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Musgrove Evans, a government surveyor, originally platted Delta Township in 1827. Although it was not until 1835 that the first Township settlers arrived.

Musgrove Evans was born December 17, 1785, in Pennsylvania. He is most well known for his work as a surveyor and pioneering the settlement of one of Michigan’s first settlements, which became known as Tecumseh in Lenawee County (1). Evans was a surveyor and civil engineer who first explored the area in 1823 (2) after seeing an advertising campaign conducted in the East by Michigan’s Territorial Governor, Lewis Cass, in hopes of securing contracts to survey military roads that were to be built on routes used by Native Americans.

Evans eventually helped found the city of Tecumseh, Michigan. He built the first grist and saw mill in the town, and established the first mail route between Detroit and Chicago. After his first wife’s death in 1832 Evans began exploration in Texas and by 1834 he had relocated his family to Texas (2).